4 Easy Side Dishes for Weekday Meals

Don’t let side dishes, or the lack thereof, keep you from cooking! I have four side dishes easy enough to make on a busy weeknight that will pull together dinner in a jiff.

I don’t think there is anything worse than making a delicious main course and running out of steam to make a nice side dish or two to go with it. I can’t be the only person who’s served baked chicken alone for dinner! I use side dishes to not only round out the meal, but also to help with my grocery budget. It’s a lot cheaper to sever everyone one piece of chicken with two side dishes to fill up on than to feed everyone three pieces of chicken. The problem is that I often run out time and energy to get the side dishes made. These are four of my go to side dish recipes that are quick and easy to make!

1. Maple Roasted Brussel Sprouts – ok, so my kids are a little weird. Their favorite green vegetable is the brussel sprout. I actually hate cutting up all those little cabbage heads to roast them, but if it gets my kids to eat a green vegetable, I’ll do it – or just rope my husband in to doing it. This side dish comes together really quickly and is super delicious. Just leave out the nuts and apples if you don’t have them on hand.

2. Baked Beans – Anytime I can, I make a side dish in my slow cooker. Baked beans are one of our favorite side dishes and I love that I can just let them cook all day long and they will be ready by dinner.

3. Salad – Salads are quick and easy to make as side dishes. While the main dish is simmering, you can quickly chop up your lettuce and veggies or better yet have a sous chef put the salad together. We love our salads with homemade salad dressings and homemade Italian salad dressing is our favorite. I keep a jar of the mix on hand so making fresh salad dressing is quick and easy.

4. Mashed Potatoes – Mashed potatoes pretty much go with every dinner and my family loves them! I, however, don’t love all the peeling, cutting, boiling, and finally mashing of the potatoes. Enter Betty Crocker Homestyle Creamy Butter Mashed Potatoes. My family gets their mashed potatoes and it doesn’t take me all afternoon to make them. Everyone’s happy! Don’t worry if your family doesn’t like mashed potatoes – Betty Crocker has an entire line of delicious and easy potato dishes!

Disclosure: Compensation was provided by Betty Crocker via Glam Media. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of Betty Crocker.